Spoiler alert: "How to End Poverty in 90 Minutes," the new show at Portland Playhouse, won't explain how to end poverty (in 90 minutes or otherwise). But if this unclassifiable work of theater succeeds, it'll at least end the silence around poverty for 90 minutes -- and that's a start.

"It's important to make spaces for public conversations about poverty," says show creator Michael Rohd. "That lack of conversation is what keeps poverty from being a top priority in our political discourse."

A collaboration between Portland Playhouse and the once Portland-based, now nationally dispersed Sojourn Theatre, "How to End Poverty in 90 Minutes" combines sketches, facilitated discussions, "factual bursts" and a dance number into a kind of socially conscious variety show. For the grand finale, the audience votes on how to spend a real $1,000 on poverty reduction, with each choice corresponding to a local nonprofit.

Rohd, Sojourn's Chicago-based artistic director, stresses that "How to End Poverty" is theater first: it's supposed to be entertaining. But the show, directed by Portlander Liam Kaas-Lentz, is also meant to create a "public-square experience" that gets people with different viewpoints talking to each other.

Art can do that better than any debate or public forum ever could, Rohd argues: "There's something about a space that is purposefully imaginative and purposefully collaborative that allows for a unique kind of civic discourse."

To make sure audience members actually have different viewpoints, Portland Playhouse and Sojourn are reserving a quarter of each performance's tickets for community partners like social-service organizations and business groups. In the workshop productions "How to End Poverty" has already received (in Chicago and Louisiana), unexpected disagreements have been vital to the show.

"People have different ideas about what approaches are going to help eliminate poverty, and at times people surprise each other with those differences," Rohd says. "That's interesting."

According to a 2014 Multnomah County report, one third of county residents don't have enough money to meet their basic needs without help. "How to End Poverty" may not lower that number to zero, but Rohd believes theater has the power to move the needle.

"I think poverty is one of the most pressing issues in the world, in our country and in our communities," he says. "I wanted to be part of that very important conversation in a way that could be, in some small way, useful."